The Verge
7/21/2026

Neill Blomkamp releases AI-generated short film using ByteDance Seedance 2.0
Original: Neill Blomkamp’s new zombie AI ‘film’ is just slop warmed over
Short summary
District 9 director Neill Blomkamp released Nightborne, a 13-minute AI-generated sci-fi short built entirely with ByteDance's Seedance 2.0 text-to-video model. The short was produced through his new AI startup Barley Studios and uses AI-modeled faces and voices of human actors. Blomkamp described it as a test and expressed intent to eventually produce a full feature film using generative AI.
- •Neill Blomkamp released a 13-min AI-generated short using ByteDance Seedance 2.0
- •Short produced via Barley Studios, his new AI production company
- •Blomkamp aims to eventually create a full feature film with generative AI
Generated with AI, which can make mistakes.
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